Yes there is tea in Cuba. They have available both black tea and green tea, loose, in packaging. Only one brand, bought with convertible pesos.
Restaurants also serve a strong mint tea, blended, it seems, with a black tea. It must be the Russian influence that makes tea such a known quantity in the land of strong and sweet espresso coffee. And now perhaps it could be a China connection, though I doubt it from seeing the teas they have. They looked generic and of poor quality. The tea I had in restaurants was never very good, and often tasted of the strong cleaning supplies used to wash the cups.
I didn’t buy any tea while there, having brought my own from Canada. I didn’t want it to get old and go to waste in the two months I was in Cuba. I made oolong in my tea glass until the day when the tea glass rolled out the car door at a highway stop.
After that, I made it in one of the pots we had in our kitchen, and we drank morning tea on our roof patio. Sometimes I saved it in water bottles for cold tea later in the heat of the day, or even froze it so it would be super cold iced tea.
CAROL SILL 